Album Review: Tru2L1fe – “Are You Ready”
Tru2L1fe – “Are You Ready”
Released: 2011
Reviewed by: Neil Christian
Rating: 4.1 (Out of 10)
[xrr rating=4.1/10]
Like many I had never heard of Tru2l1fe. In fact, when I received the album, I confused this group with the Cross Movement’s Tru Life! So imagine the shock I got when I first played it and heard southern music! Thankfully I realized my error in due time. The title of the album is Are You Ready? A great concept to be expounded upon, as it concerns both non-believers and believers. Are we all ready for the return of our Master, Messiah and the Magistrate of the earth?
We might as well start with Idol talk, a beautiful soft-keys driven introspective track that talks about the idols in our lives and the devastating effect they have. But it doesn’t stop there. The great thing is that the rappers go on to not only present the problem, but offer a solution; something that conscious secular songs lack. The production is a highpoint of the album. Lord’s Music starts with a banging bass line with symphonic synths amongst the claps and complete with sharp snares. It’s divine. In fact, the album doesn’t depart from the tried and true formula of sharp snares and heavy synths very often. Not that it’s a bad thing. However when it does divert, the result is incredible. See the aforementioned Idol Talk and then there is Tru Identity where the rappers talk about searching for identity over a hauntingly somber beat, ultimately pointing the way to Christ.
The real letdown on this project is the rappers. With such fantastic beats, the rappers just failed to bring their “A” game. The beats overshadowed the rappers. The rhymes were basic AB/AB, they often missed timings on the beats and the flows on many songs just didn’t fit the BPM of the songs. Also there are some atrocious hooks on this project. The single of the album, Dreamz, has a hook “the dude’s trying to kill me, he’s tryin to sell me a dream,” looking at the words on paper the hook doesn’t look bad. However try singing the hook, off-key with auto-tune; that’s a train not even Denzel can stop. Also I guess I will never understand the attraction of auto-tune.
The mixing and mastering of the project also fell short in some areas. There was too much “head” room on the vocals, so it sounded as if the rapper was standing in the Grand Canyon when recording. The reverb needed to be adjusted. Also significant clarity was needed with many songs blurring into just “noise”, such as What’s Going On. The project lacked polish and sounded like it was pulled out of the oven a bit too early.
“Are You Ready?” is a question that needs to be asked of every Christian. Are we ready for the return of our Master? This project is helpful in exploring that concept but it’s a project that does not hold any replay value. With little variety in beat, poor mixing and a severe deficiency in the rhymes department, this project leaves a lot to be desired.
Comprehensive Ratings:
1. Music – 6
2. Flow – 4
3. Creativity / Originality – 3
4. Relevancy – 2
5. Content & Character – 6
6. Credibility & Confidence – 4
7. Personality – 5
8. Presentation Quality –4
9. Overall Production Quality – 4
10. Potential Impact – 3
